CoronaVinyl Day 357 (T): John Barleycorn Must Die by Traffic

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "T," and I went with Traffic's fourth studio album, 1970's John Barleycorn Must Die.  As you can see, I don't have the album cover for this one.  I think it was a bonus record that was shoved into the same sleeve as one of the other Traffic albums I have. 

This was the first album the band made after regrouping.  They had taken a two-year hiatus.  Dave Mason had left the group, and then Steve Winwood joined supergroup Blind Faith with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Rick Grech, while Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood became session musicians.  Winwood, Capaldi, and Wood reunited in early 1970 and made John Barleycorn Must Die.

The first and most pressing question is:  Who is John Barleycorn?  If you lived in or hung around Chicago for any part of the '90s or '00s, you know John Barleycorn as the name of several bars on the North Side frequented by twentysomethings, where bad decisions were often made.

This "John Barleycorn" was an Elizabethan era folk song that originated in either England or Scotland, and the name John Barleycorn eventually became a slang term for alcohol.  Traffic plays its own version of "John Barleycorn" on this album, arranged by Winwood.

Overall, the album is exactly what you'd expect from post-Mason Traffic.  Three songs on each side.  A lot of jamming and jazz rock fusion, with some blues inspiration mixed in.  Great musicianship, and of course, Winwood's voice is fantastic.

The album went to #5 on the Billboard album chart, making it the band's highest-charting album ever in the U.S., and starting a string of four consecutive Top 10 studio albums in America.  It also went to #11 on the UK album chart.  "Empty Pages" was the only charting song on the album, reaching #74 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "Empty Pages"
The other two songs on this side are nearly entirely instrumental, which I don't necessarily mind, but I do like Winwood's voice, and this song has a good soul rock feel.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "Every Mother's Son"
The album ends with a nice jammer.